Soft spot
by MoVi
Summary: Why are specially trained cops vanishing in downtown LA? It is for the A-team to find out, but this time they will need all the help they can. Written as a script for an 'A N G E L' episode and a sequel to 'Human touch', published on this site on 10/2.


Title: Soft spot  
Summary: Why are specially trained cops vanishing in downtown LA? It is for the A-team to find out, but this time they will really need all the help they can. Written as a script for an 'A N G E L' episode and a sequel to 'Human touch', published on this site on 10/2.  
Author: MoVi   
Disclaimer: These characters remain the copyrighted property of their owners/creators, it's just that they are SO good that we cannot help imagining them in new situations...  
Rating: PG-13  
Feedback: welcome!  
Distribution: can we control it? We doubt it. So please just remember who wrote it.  
Time frame: These events might take place 3 months after the end of A-Season 2 and BTVS-Season 5.  
Spoilers: your spoiler warning is in the time frame.  
Dedication: To Jaybird and Redfield 666 - thanks for having read and taken the time to review our first fiction posted on this forum. Sorry Jaybird, no Dennis/Angel duking match for now, but... maybe, who knows!  
  
  
SOFT SPOT  
  
L.A. at night, a Latin American district. Two police officers are on patrol in their car. They hear a girl screaming and see her running into an alley, chased by a strange figure. They get out of the car and run to her rescue only to find themselves in a "cul de sac", surrounded by a band of vampires. The girl herself is a vampire. The demons attack them and the two policemen are disarmed and immobilized.  
-First vampire: "Now they are all yours, Janeera: bring them to a new life!"  
A tall, black female vampire comes out of the shadow and approaches the two cops. She violently bites them, one after the other: petrified and exhausted, the two officers fall on their knees in front of her. Two vampires seize and lift the two victims' heads from behind and make them open their mouth. With an evil grin, Janeera scratches her wrist with her unusually sharp nail to let it bleed, then she turns it and lets a few drops of her blood fall between their open lips.  
Break  
  
Afternoon, Angel Investigations. Gunn comes in with a newspaper in his hand. The front page reports the news of the disappearance of two police officers during the night.  
-Gunn, slamming the newspaper on Cordelia's desk: "No vision on these guys, princess?"  
-Cordelia looks at the newspaper and then at him with a half surprised, half worried expression: "No, should I?"  
-Gunn: "Well, yeah. This ain't nothing good! With these two, it's six cops missing in the last 15 days! Poof! Vanished! Their cars left open, no trace of violence, no bodies, blood, nothing!"  
Angel and Wes have now joined them at Cordelia's desk.  
-Wes: "Are you thinking of vampires making other vampires?"  
-Gunn: "That's exactly what I was thinking!"  
Cordelia gives the others a perplexed look: "But why cops?"  
They all look at each other.  
-Wes: "Well, it's not by staring at each other that we will discover what is behind this! We need information: did they all disappear in the same area? Were they young, old? Did they belong to the same section? Could they have been corrupt officers? What were they investigating?"  
-Angel: "Kate has friends at the police. I think she can get the information."  
-Cordelia: "So you do want her on the team, don't you?"  
-Angel: "She is not on the team, Cordy. But she can help, as she did in the past."  
-Cordelia: "Right. Like when she arrested you. Or when she came here, gun in hand, to search for you because she believed you were an assassin and a kidnapper."  
-Angel: "Well, technically I was a kidnapper... but that's not the point. It has taken her a while to get to know me."  
-Cordelia, with a challenging look: "And now she does?.... Better than we do?"   
Angel meets her gaze with determination but not without a touch of sorrow. She finally looks away but says, in a resentful tone: "Do as you wish."   
-Angel: "I'll go to her. Now. Maybe we can get that information tonight."  
And he leaves.  
-Cordelia (irritated) to Wesley: "Couldn't he have used the phone?"  
-Wesley, with an understanding tone: "He hasn't seen her for a week, maybe he just wants to say hello."  
  
Cut to Angel and Kate showering together, hugging and kissing passionately.  
  
Opening credits  
  
Close-up of Angel's coat on a chair, a ringing tone comes from it. After a while, a hand grabs it and searches the pockets for the mobile, finally finding it. The camera pans up and shows Kate, in her bathrobe, who answers the phone.  
-Kate: "Hello!"  
-Cordelia: "Kate? I was trying to...Is Angel OK? I have been trying to get in touch with him for half an hour, nobody answered me..."  
-Kate "Yeah, well...we didn't hear the phone ringing, that's all..."  
-Cordelia: "Can I speak with him?"  
-Kate: "Not right now...he is...taking a shower. I'll tell him to call back."  
-Cordelia: "We were waiting for some news on...some information he was trying to get."  
-Kate: "Right, the information. It's all set, we have an appointment with a ex-colleague of mine at 10, we were just about to go out to meet him..."  
-Cordelia: "OK...And then he will come right back here?"  
-Kate: "Sure. See you later, then."   
She closes the communication and says to herself: "He is taking a shower. Couldn't I have come up with something smarter?"  
Cut to the Hyperion. Cordelia has just put down the receiver and whispers to herself "See you later?" Then she turns to Wesley, her mouth gaping wide in amazement.  
-Cordelia: "They were in the shower! Together! Is this really the same 'I'd rather sit alone in the dark' vampire for whom I have been working for two and a half years? I don't recognise him any more!"  
-Gunn: "He ain't two and a half years to catch up, he's got more than one hundred!"  
-Cordelia, her amazed expression turning into an appalled one: "I find it disgusting! And with poor Buffy not dead 4 months!"  
-Wesley: "But you have always wanted Angel to get over Buffy."  
-Cordelia: "Well, I didn't mean get over her and jump directly onto yet another blonde!"  
  
Cut to Kate's apartment. Kate is where we have left her, in the living room, close to Angel's coat, the mobile still in her hands. She turns her head and finds Angel right behind her, a towel around his waist.  
-Kate: "Your phone. It was ringing."  
-Angel: "Wesley?"  
-Kate: "Cordelia. She was worried. I told her about the appointment."  
-Angel: "I should have rung them. They must have been sitting there, waiting for my call." He smiles at himself: "I just seem to have lost my focus from this matter some...2 minutes after coming here."  
-Kate puts her arms around his waist and can't help smiling in turn: "I wonder what made you lose it..."  
-Angel: "Yeah, not very consistent with the last talk we had, is it?"  
Kate gives him a light kiss, then turns around and walks towards the bedroom door.  
-Kate: "Well, don't expect me to complain about your inconsistencies... I'll be ready in a minute."  
-Angel, to himself, with a puzzled expression: "It must have been the bathrobe..."  
  
Cut to the street in front of Kate's apartment. Angel and Kate come out of the building, Angel keeps the door open for her and then touches her back as she passes him to go out. We hear the noise of a camera shot.  
Cut to LA street, night. Angel and Kate, sitting in his convertible, are waiting in front of a movie theater. The camera films them from above and "closes" on the detail of Kate's hand caressing Angel's wrist; we hear the clicking sound of a camera. While people start to come out of the movie theater, Angel and Kate kiss; a man from the crowd casually lets a folder full of papers drop on the car's rear seat. We see the scene from above, in a sequence of frames, separated by the sound of the shots taken by the unseen camera.  
Break  
  
The clock in the Hyperion's hall says it is 11 p.m. when Angel and Kate come in with the police material. Wes, Gunn and Cordelia are waiting for them.  
Wes and Cordelia wave to Kate.  
-Wesley: "Hi, Kate."  
-Gunn draws Angel aside: "Must the lady remain here with us? The last time I've seen her here, she had a S.W.A.T. team with her, threw my "CV" in my face and was determined to arrest you!"  
-Angel: "Things change, Gunn. She was fired, she is no longer in the force."  
-Gunn: "Hey, man! Maybe she's lost her badge, but I'll bet she still has the conceit that goes with it. Do you really think she can work with us?"  
Angel does not answer and goes back towards the others.  
-Wes: "So what have you found?"  
Gunn joins Cordelia and they open the folder and start to rummage through the papers.  
-Angel: "The missing officers seem to have a few elements in common: they are all in their thirties, tall, strong and trained in the special units. All highly skilled, assigned to undercover ops, two of them are experts on witness protection."  
-Cordelia, looking at some papers: "They all disappeared in the same district..."  
-Gunn: "And that's not a district where you would expect to find this kind of cops at nighttime! But then, this hotel is not a place where you would expect to find cops, either..." He gives Kate a meaningful look, Kate defiantly meets his gaze.  
-Cordelia: "Gunn, don't be rude ...Kate is no longer a cop now, she is...she is...", she looks at Angel with curiosity, "..technically: what is she now??"  
-Angel, annoyed: "Kate is a friend helping us in this case... and she is particularly involved, since we are talking of her former colleagues!"  
-Gunn: "Are you sure Miss Lethal Weapon here did not have her accounts to settle with them?"  
Kate starts to leave. Wes and Angel stop her.  
-Wesley: "Kate, wait! I'm sure you must be used to being provoked like this! You know Gunn, he likes teasing cops...", he sternly stares at Gunn, "...but he knows when to stop. Moreover, he was the one who brought this case to our attention; if it hadn't been for him, maybe none of us would have noticed it".  
Kate, slowly coming back to the desk: "They were all good officers, they were drawn there by 911 calls, all made from telephone boxes in the downtown area."  
Wesley takes out a map of L.A. and unfolds it on the table.  
-Wesley: "Here: let's see where these telephone boxes are..."  
-Angel, with a disgusted tone: "Damn it! I knew it!!"  
-Cordelia: "What? What is it?"  
-Gunn: "The telephones are not far from..."  
-Wesley: "...Wolfram & Hart's offices!"  
-Gunn: "I know that district, it's full of bloodsuckers' bands, so.. my guess? Vampires have ambushed them and turned them, 'cause they never found the bodies."  
-Kate: "I don't get it. Why would vampires want highly qualified officers?"  
-Angel: "Not the vampires! Those damned lawyers! But why? Why cops?". Then with a bitter smile he adds: "Sure they are not thinking of arresting some stinking minion of hell!"  
-Kate, thinking aloud: "To serve and ...protect!"  
Angel, Wes and Gunn all simultaneously raise their head towards her.  
-Cordelia, following her thoughts: "To protect...who???"  
  
Cut to Angel and Gunn in Angel's car.   
-Gunn: "You think the cops are still somewhere in the neighborhood?"   
-Angel: "No, I don't think so. If Wolfram & Hart is behind this, they will want everything under control. But we could still find someone who knows where they have gone..."  
The convertible turns at a traffic lights and the skyscrapers of downtown LA appear right in front of them.  
-Angel: "So you know the district. Where do we start?"  
-Gunn: "Aren't you thirsty?"  
Angel just stares at him.  
-Gunn: "A bar! First stop, a bar, to get the latest news."  
  
Cut to an alley. Angel and Gunn come out of a door, the backdoor of a lousy bar, pushing a vampire before them. Angel remains a few steps away while Gunn pins him against the wall, threatening him with a wooden stake against the heart.  
-Gunn: "Hey, Stan, don't tell me you've forgotten our deal! You tell me what's going on around here, I don't stake you."  
-Stan: "You want me to betray my own kind and... put my life at risk!"  
-Gunn. "Yeah, your life's at risk, right now, can you feel it?" He presses the stake harder against his chest.  
-Stan: "All right, all right. There's this new one, she and her band have settled in the old Merckley's warehouse."  
Gunn holds him for a few more seconds, then suddenly lets go, turns around and leaves with Angel, walking back towards the main street.  
-Angel: "So there is vampire you have let live."  
-Gunn: "With you, it makes two."  
Break  
  
Hyperion Hotel. Wesley is knocking on the door of Fred's room. A mumble comes from within. Wesley slowly opens the door. Fred is sitting on the floor, rocking and moaning, surrounded by newspaper articles she selects, cuts and then sticks on a big sheet of paper. Wesley reads some of the titles: 'Mysterious invasion of cockroaches in the Central Hospital's kitchens', 'Peaceful widow stabs her five sleeping children', 'Astronomers are waiting for Friday's exceptional astral alignment', 'Earthquake alarm in South California'.  
-Wesley: "I need your help, Winifred... Can you leave your work for a while? Nobody will hurt you at the library, and I will be there with you".  
-Fred: "Look, Wesley!" She points at the various articles scattered on the floor: "Chaos, hate, egoism...they are all blind and deaf! Why?"  
-Wesley: "I don't know, Fred. To tell you the truth, I'm a bit worried about Friday's astral alignment. Can you help me with the calculations?"  
-Fred: "A guide? You need a guide?"  
-Wesley: "I'm afraid so, at least as much as you need protection! Will you come with me?"  
Fred stands up, takes a big book and steps behind Wesley, barefoot.  
  
Cut to the Hyperion's hall.   
Cordelia is consulting some big, old volumes, murmuring between herself: "..there shouldn't be many helpless demons in need of protection..." She raises her head and looks at Kate, who is sitting not far from her. The blonde woman seems tense and observes her in silence.  
-Cordelia: "You're not worried for them, are you? Gunn is a very good fighter and Angel...well, after all he is still a vampire, right?"  
-Kate: "I don't understand you, you look so calm and detached. I thought they were your friends..."  
-Cordelia: "And they are! Angel and Gunn are my friends! I guess that's the reason why I don't have any scars on my neck..."  
-Kate: "What do you mean?" She suddenly understands what she is referring to and adds: "Oh, no, that night he was just trying to..."   
But Cordelia won't let her finish: "Nothing. But if you trust Angel as you say you do, you shouldn't be worried."  
-Kate: "I'm not worried, I just can't stand being here without being able to help."  
-Cordelia: "Well, you cannot blame them if they didn't want you to go with them ...considering your past experiences...I don't think you've ever had good relationships with vampires ... well, excluding present relationships, of course!"  
The conversation is interrupted by Wesley and Fred coming downstairs. Fred is still murmuring: "A guide? Protection!...Chaos, blind and deaf ...I must have read something somewhere a long time ago ..."  
-Wesley: "You shouldn't read all those newspapers, Fred..."  
-Cordelia suddenly shouts and shows a page of her book to Wesley: "Ahhh, here! Helpless demons! They are blind and deaf, if invoked they need a guide and protection: Aiwass, Ashtar, Aigun. They are the demons of Chaos, Egoism and Hate...Oh, no, sorry, I don't think this is what we are looking for... here it says they are the demons of the Apocalypse and...we don't have an Apocalypse scheduled ..., do we?"  
Wesley, Winifred, Kate and Cordelia stare at each other in silence.  
  
Cut to Wolfram & Hart building.  
Lilah is in her office with the pictures of Angel and Kate's meeting with their informer scattered on her desk. She picks a close-up of Kate and hands it to a vampire dressed like a bodyguard standing in front of her.  
-Lilah: "No interference with the plan. This is the target, you know what to do. And don't mess things up: you will wait for my approval for the execution. Is that clear?"  
The vampire nods and leaves. Lilah picks up another picture from the group: it's the one showing Angel and Kate kissing in front of the movie theater. She smiles scornfully and speaks to a figure who is standing behind her in the shadow.  
-Lilah: "Isn't it exciting when you have the chance to kill two birds with one stone?"  
Break  
  
A vamped-out Angel busts the double doors of an old warehouse. He comes in, armed with a medieval sword, Gunn following right behind, a pointed stake in his hand. On a table at the center of the big room lies a petrified victim, Janeera is above her and is about to bite her. Four more vampires are standing around the table.  
Two vampires throw themselves against Gunn, who dusts one of them in one single move. The other two attack Angel, who dodges them, they stumble and, while they are both on their knees on the floor, he raises the big sword and beheads them both at the same time. One of the vampires runs away, Gunn helps the victim out and Angel drops Janeera with a hard right.  
While Angel pulls Janeera's arms behind her back, Gunn starts to throw gasoline all over the vampires' den.  
-Angel: "My friend here is not familiar with the art of diplomacy! Six cops recently vanished in this district, tell me where they are or I leave you tied to that beam while he has fun with the fire..."  
Gunn starts to ignite the scattered gasoline.  
-Janeera: "I have no idea what you are talking about..."  
Angel pulls Janeera's crossed arms higher up and she emits a moan.  
-Angel: "Good, then I don't need you! Gunn! Come here with that tank!"  
-Janeera: "No, no! Not the fire!"  
-Angel: "So you've remembered something?"  
-Janeera, scared: "Two men in grey suits, maybe lawyers...they gave us a lot of money to turn the cops into vampires. We did it...that's all."  
Gunn spills some gasoline on Janeera's hair and she screams. Then he steps closer with a lit match.  
-Gunn: "Then what happened? Where did they go?"  
-Janeera now is terrorized: "They came to fetch them! The men in grey paid us and they carried the cops away in an ambulance! That's all I know, I swear!"  
Gunn throws the match on the floor and walks towards Janeera with his pointed stake. The flames in the room are high by now, Angel pushes Janeera towards Gunn and she falls on her knees. Suddenly, the vampire who had run away appears behind Gunn and kicks him in the back. Gunn stumbles on Janeera and falls headlong on Angel, stabbing him in his abdomen with the stake. The vampire and Janeera vanish into the night. Gunn helps Angel out of the hell he himself has unleashed, he helps him get on the car and gets behind the wheel.  
-Angel, pressing his hand against his wound: "Next time, remember to put the stake away before starting to play with the gasoline!"  
-Gunn, with a timid smile: "I know it hurts, bro, but I can assure you you won't die!"   
  
Cut to the Hyperion. Gunn and Angel come in through the backdoor, Gunn is supporting Angel. Kate and Cordelia hurry to them, but it's Kate who reaches Angel first and passes her arm around his waist, while Angel puts his arm around her shoulders.   
-Cordelia: "What happened?"  
-Angel: "We met Mrs Cop-killer..."  
  
Cut to later.  
Gunn is on the sofa, Cordelia is standing in front of him and listening to his tale of what has happened. While he speaks, she turns towards Wesley's office and watches Kate taking care of Angel's wound. The camera follows her gaze and pans closer to them.  
Angel is leaning on the desk and looking down at Kate, who is cleaning his wound.  
-Angel: "Fighting vampires on the streets brings up old memories."  
Kate looks up, then she resumes her task.  
-Kate: "Did you two fight side by side?"  
-Angel: "In Sunnydale? Yeah. Well, apart from that period where we were actually fighting against each other."  
-Kate: "And she was good? I mean, a good fighter?"  
-Angel: "She was stronger than me, focused and very brave. Yeah, she was an excellent fighter."  
-Kate: "You never told me why you left Sunnydale."  
-Angel: "I just didn't think it was fair being around her, preventing her to lead a normal life."  
Kate has just finished applying Band-Aid to the wound. She stands up and intensely stares at him.  
-Angel: "What?"  
-Kate: "Nothing. It's just... Sometimes I think you're almost too perfect to be true. Like a knight from some ancient tale."  
-Angel, with a half smile: "You didn't think I was a knight from some ancient tale the first time we met."  
-Kate: "No. But I finally came round." She casts a glance towards the open door. Without shifting his gaze from her, Angel gently drags her away from the door, against a pile of filing cabinets. He pulls her to him and kisses her.  
Cut to the hall. Cordelia glances at the office door, but Angel and Kate are not to be seen.  
  
Images of dawn and the sun coming up.  
  
Next morning at the Hyperion. Angel comes downstairs and meets Wesley at the reception counter.  
-Angel: "Morning."  
-Wesley: "Good morning. Cordelia left me a note, saying you got wounded."  
-Angel: "It was not too bad. We found the vampire who got paid to turn the cops, she said men in grey suits picked them up in ambulances. It's not much as a trail, but we could start from there."  
-Wesley: "And our research has given some results as well..."  
-Angel: "Yeah, Kate has told me about the demons..."  
-Wesley: "Right, so we'd better have a meeting as soon as Cordy and Gunn come in."  
-Wesley looks at Angel as if he were expecting him to say something, but since he doesn't, he asks him: "Is everything OK?"  
-Angel answers in a distracted tone: "Yeah..." Then he sees Wesley's intent expression and he resumes: "Yes, everything's fine."  
Wesley continues to stare at him, but Angel looks confused.  
-Wesley: "And our guest is..."  
-Angel: "...upstairs, showering. She will soon be down."  
-Wesley raises his hand as if to excuse himself: "I didn't mean to intrude..."  
-Angel: "It's OK, Wes. I understand. Kate and I... we are just friends...". Then he quickly adds, with a half embarrassed, half amused tone, "Well, yeah, apart from this thing of... sleeping together..." He checks himself and resumes with a more serious tone: "But it's true, we are friends. She knows everything about Buffy and she respects my love for her, we often speak about it. In this last period we have gone through similar things, and we feel close."  
-Wesley: "Do you think she loves you?"   
-Angel quickly answers: "No!" Then he adds, with a more uncertain tone, "I don't think so..."  
They both look up when they hear steps on the stairs. Kate comes down and joins them.  
-Kate: "Morning, Wesley." Then to Angel: "I must go now. I have an appointment with the counsellor, they want me to finish this round of sessions. But I'll be back in the afternoon, so that you can tell me how things proceed." She starts towards the exit, touching his arm and pressing it gently while she walks past him.   
-Angel: "Right. I'll see you in the afternoon, then."  
-Wesley: "Bye, Kate."  
Kate leaves.  
-Angel, to Wesley: "It's so weird!"  
-Wesley: "It feels more human, doesn't it?"  
Angel looks at him, without answering.  
  
Cut to a bar, the kind of bar attended almost exclusively by police officers.  
Kate is sitting at the counter with a former colleague, a woman approximately the same age as Kate.  
-Ann: "So, Kate, do you miss us a bit?"  
-Kate: "I miss you a lot, but I must say I'm starting to get over it..."  
-Ann: "So the worst crisis is over?"  
-Kate: "Yes, I have felt much better lately, and I'm learning to take life day by day."  
-Ann: "Good for you! Maybe it's because you don't have to answer to anyone any more..."  
-Kate: "I don't think it's just the freedom... it's... I have suddenly realized that I have a very good friend."  
-Ann: "When the going gets tough, you find the best friends!"  
-Kate: "True! Sorry, Ann, now I must really go...Will you bring my regards to Sal and the others?"  
-Ann: "Sure!"  
Kate grabs her handbag and leaves.  
  
Cut to the Hyperion. Lunch break, waiting for the meeting to start.  
-Cordelia, a sandwich in her hand: "Gunn?"  
-Wesley: "He's coming."  
Angel leads Fred down the stairs, they are both carrying several rolled-up maps.  
Fred puts her maps on Cordelia's desk, she takes the maps from Angel's arms and puts them down as well, then she nervously looks around her, searching for Wesley's gaze.  
-Winifred: "Next Friday, at 6.06 p.m., there will be an alignment of 6 planets with a lunar eclipse. It will be a red moon: a rare and interesting, though ominous, phenomenon..."  
-Gunn, coming in: "Why is it we never get good omens?"  
-Wesley: "Good, now we are all here, we can start ..."  
Cordelia brings her hand to her forehead and gives a shout while she starts to fall backwards.  
-Angel and Wesley run to get her: "Visions!"  
-Angel: "What do you see?"  
-Cordelia, with a grimace: "AAHHH, a needle in her arm!"  
-Wesley: "What's happening?"  
-Cordelia: "It's a...it's a kidnapping! A corridor, stairs!"  
-Angel: "Can you see the kidnappers?"  
-Cordelia:"No, they are wearing surgical masks. They are at the apartment's door..."  
-Angel: "Whose apartment? Who do they want to kidnap?"  
-Cordelia: "Oh, my God! No, no! Oh, no, not her...no!"  
-Angel : "Who is it? Cordy, speak to me! Who are they kidnapping? Do you know her?"  
-Cordelia, terrified, sadly recovering from her vision: "I do, and .. you know her, too..."  
-Angel, upset: "Kate!"  
  
  
END OF EPISODE  
  



End file.
